The Color Bind: California's Battle to End Affirmative Action [Hardcover]

The journey is filled with enough dramatic moments, setbacks, and unpredictable turn-of-events on both sides to make the book read like a fast-paced novel. Chávez, an assistant professor at University of California-Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, interviewed hundreds of sources in California, Washington, D. C. and elsewhere. We are privy to strategy sessions, fund-raising meetings, and internal debates on both sides. On the pro-side, state political heavies seized the initiative for their own purposes-- Pete Wilson for an ill-advised run for the U.S. presidency, California Board of Regents member Ward Connerly for exposure and political advancement. Connerly, who is black, became the poster boy for the pro-209 camp. The irony was perfect: an up-by-the bootstraps African American Republican in favor of doing away with affirmative action.

The effort to construct a cogent opposition fell apart amid turf battles that pitted feminists against civil rights advocates, northern California against southern California.

In a brilliant strategic coup, the pro-209 camp was successful in controlling the wording of the initiative, which Chávez singles out as a key to their success. Dan Lungren, then Republican attorney general (now failed California gubernatorial candidate) was responsible for the title and wording that went on the ballot--the sum total of what most voters would read about the initiative.

Though both sides agreed the initiative would end most of the state's affirmative action programs, the words "affirmative action" did not appear in the title or summary. Despite a law suit, Lungren prevailed, and the mom-and-apple-pie version made it illegal to "discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting." Who could be against that?

The stealth wording confused voters. Grass roots workers in the wasteland of South Central Los Angeles found, to their dismay, that minorities in the area supported the initiative, until it was explained to them.

The Color Bind contains ample lessons for both sides of Prop 209--and not just about affirmative action, because, in the final analysis, the subject of the book is politics. In the 1998 midterm election, the Republicans, who ran ads reminding voters of Monica Lewinsky, would have done well to heed the mistake the Democrats made in the last days of the Prop 209 television advertising campaign. Though all polling indicated that voters responded to a more centrist, "mend it don't end it" strategy, the Democrats ran racial scare ads featuring Klu Klux Klanman David Duke. Voters were not swayed, and Prop 209 passed with 54.9 percent of the vote.

This even-handed account of the California initiative should appeal to people on both sides of the debate, as well as anyone who is fascinated by how individual personalities, in-fighting, and turf battles play out in the drama that is politics. Chávez understands that politics is people. That, ultimately, is what makes the book such a good read.